The following is a letter to the community from National Science Foundation (NSF) Director, France A. Córdova. Dear Colleague: The National Science Foundation is initiating a national search for the Assistant Director for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE). We seek your assistance in the identification of visionary candidates to lead the Directorate during the coming years. Dr. James Kurose has served in this position with distinction since January 2015. He has worked with his NSF colleagues on new initiatives in Harnessing the Data Revolution and other NSF Big Ideas; and with the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), other Federal agencies, industry partners, and the academic research […]

Contributions to this post were provided by the Computing Research Association’s Director for Government Affairs, Peter Harsha, and Computing Community Consortium’s Director, Ann Drobnis. Today President Trump signed an executive order on Maintaining American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence calling on Federal agencies to prioritize investments in research and dedicating Federal resources to boost U.S. artificial intelligence (AI). In an accompanying fact sheet, the White House explained the goal of the order: Americans have profited tremendously from being the early developers and international leaders in AI. However, as the pace of AI innovation increases around the world, we cannot sit idly by and presume that our leadership is guaranteed. We must […]

The following is from the CRA Bulletin. Congrats, Jen! The Education Committee of the Computing Research Association (CRA-E) is proud to announce two recipients of the 2019 CRA-E Undergraduate Research Faculty Mentoring Award: Jennifer Rexford from Princeton University and Westley Weimer from the University of Michigan. These outstanding individuals are being recognized for providing exceptional mentorship, undergraduate research experiences, and, in parallel, guidance on admission and matriculation of their students to research-focused graduate programs in computing. The 2019 selection committee includes Pat Morreale (chair, Kean University), Eric Aaron (Colby College), Chandra Krintz (University of California, Santa Barbara), and Denys Poshyvanyk (William & Mary). Jennifer Rexford, Ph.D., is the Gordon Y.S. Wu Professor and […]

The following Great Innovative Idea is from Tamraparni Dasu, Yaron Kanza, and Divesh Srivastava of AT&T Labs-Research. They were one of the Blue Sky Award winners at ACM SIGSPATIAL ’18 for their paper Geofences in the Sky: Herding Drones with Blockchains and 5G. The Idea Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), typically also referred to as drones, are gaining popularity and becoming ubiquitous. As the number of drones in the sky rapidly grows, managing the expected high-volume air traffic is becoming a critical challenge. It is essential to prevent collisions, and to protect the public from nuisances like noise or invasion of privacy, and shield from hazards like falling debris. Currently, in many countries drones are required to be within line of sight […]

The following is by CCC Director Ann Drobnis.  The Thirty-Third Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) conference is taking place this week in Honolulu, Hawaii. The purpose of this conference is to promote research in artificial intelligence (AI) and scientific exchange among AI researchers, practitioners, scientists, and engineers in affiliated disciplines, making it an ideal place to present the AI Roadmap to the community, seeking input and feedback as the Roadmap is being written. Yolanda Gil and Bart Selman, Co-Chairs of the AI Roadmap were accompanied by workshop co-chairs Marie desJardins, Ken Forbus (Integrated Intelligence Workshop), Dan Weld (Interaction Workshop), and Tom Dietterich (Self Aware Learning Workshop) to […]

The Computing Community Consortium (CCC) is charged with catalyzing and empowering the U.S. computing research community to articulate and advance major research directions for the field. Established in 2006 through a cooperative agreement between the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Computing Research Association (CRA), the CCC provides a voice for the national computing research community, and facilitates the development of a bold, multi-themed vision for computing research, and communicates that vision to a wide range of major stakeholders. To fulfill its mission, the CCC needs truly visionary leaders — people with great ideas, sound judgment, and the willingness to work hard to see things to completion. The Council is comprised of 20 diverse researchers from across […]